-- 6-9: p.m. Friday opening reception of 65 Roses for Cystic Fibrosis at Independence Gallery, 233 E. Fourth St. Visit and purchase a rosy work of art to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. On Saturday, 5-9 p.m. live and silent auction.

Friday, Night on the Town:

-- 6-7:30 p.m., Still Parade of Lights, Fourth Street.

-- 6-7:30 p.m., The City of Loveland Visual Arts Commission, Friends of the Library and the Library Board will celebrate the artwork of 11 artists at the Loveland Public Library. Guests in the Galleria and The Art Advocacy Project2D are two programs designed to showcase fine art within City buildings.

-- 6-9 p.m., "Fragments" art exhibit at Artworks Loveland, 310 N. Railroad Ave. This is an exhibition of works on canvas by Andrew Jay Svedlow and metal sculpture of Gene Michieli. Visit artworksloveland.org. No admission. Refreshments.

-- 6-9 p.m. In the Meantime Gallery opens at the Loveland Feed and Grain, 130 W. Third St. The permanent gallery, sponsored by Artspace Loveland, will feature installation artists Nikki Pike and Megan Tracy. Play with Nikki Pike's Ice Bellows at the Loveland Museum/Gallery and then follow a trail of Megan Tracy's Ice Luminaries to the Loveland Feed and Grain.

Scroll over the interactive photo and click the links to view photos and videos of Sculpture work this week.

This week has been a challenge for snow sculptors and organizers. Artists struggled at the beginning of the week with warm temperatures to sculpt their blocks of snow without having the work melt away.

The trouble began with making the snow, which was done at Osborn Farm in the weeks before the sculpture competition. Organizers had to wait until 19-degree temperatures and work fast to turn out enough snow in the right conditions.

And then the warm weather this week didn't help.

"This has been far more challenging to the sculptors than anyone can imagine," said Kristine Koschke with E.L. Events. The weather was 52 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, Koschke said, and then it rained Wednesday night.

"Those challenges alone don't count the difficulty of carving snow," Koschke said. "We are not a mountain town, which makes this challenge even more exceptional."

Koschke agreed on Thursday to allow the sculptors to work until noon Saturday instead of 10 a.m. as planned. The judges will arrive at noon to evaluate the pieces instead of the original 2 p.m. judging time.

"We decided to give them a break," Koschke said.

Nine teams remained in good spirits throughout the week. Robin Dodge and her team of all women spent Wednesday carving their block into a round ball on a square base.

"We're reducing the weight on top so the bottom is more stable," Dodge said. They gave themselves daily goals of work to accomplish.

Keith Martin and Margo Jerkovitz with "Team Breck" from Breckenridge were optimistic on Wednesday. "We're working with the weather as much as possible," Martin said. The warmer temperatures actually allowed the duo to pack slushy snow together into the extra blocks they needed on the back end of a mammoth sculpture, and then the cold nights froze the sections into place.

Carey Hosterman with "Team Triple H" said that the team changed the design slightly to add more stability by allowing two swan heads to touch in the middle instead of stand apart. The team was happy about the chillier weather on Wednesday. "I swear the whole thing shrunk from yesterday to today," Hosterman said. "We had a nice river running through it on Tuesday." On Thursday afternoon, Hosterman covered one of the swans against the sun with a dark cloth and pointed out the water dripping from one beak. "Last night we had to break off icicles," he said.

Steven Carmer and Garrett Dreiling on the "Two Guys and a Block" team were a little worried about the weather but said it's always overwhelming when you start anyway. When asked why design a manta ray, Dreiling said, "Ever seen a manta ray on Fourth Street?" The two worked Wednesday and Thursday to carve a manta ray swimming through coral. The hardest part of it was scooping out the snow under the tail to give air to the sea creature.

And one block of snow stood tall and proud under a blue tarp until Thursday afternoon when David Mitchell and David Hammer of Arvada began digging into it to give shape to a representational piece of art meant to be an example of "futuro" or the transportation of the future. They planned to work all afternoon and night Friday to finish up the delicate design.